New TaylorMade MG3 Milled Grind wedges push boundaries of spin and versatility

TaylorMade MG3 wedges

New TaylorMade Milled Grind MG3 wedges look to improve on a winning formula with clever design tweaks that promise significant performance gains. 

TaylorMade’s focus on wedges has won them many fans in recent years, from tour pros to amateur golfers.

When adidas owned TaylorMade, wedges were never a pillar of the company, and the category didn’t get the love (or investment) it deserved. But since the adidas sell-off in 2017, wedges, balls and putters have become just as important to the brand as drivers and irons. And that renewed product focus is paying dividends.

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TaylorMade wedges are currently riding a significant wave of success. The tour player developed Hi-Toe has really taken off and they’re just as popular now in non-contract bags as they are in the hands of TaylorMade’s own tour staff. And thanks to developing a process which allows wedge faces to rust, the company have also commercialized rusty wedges, a previously untapped market, and an idea that’s great at preserving spin in wet conditions.

With the Milled Grind 2 wedges fast approaching their 2nd birthday, TaylorMade’s designers have brought together everything they’ve learned about wedges over the last few years in a brand new MG3 model.

Where Hi-Toe pushes what’s acceptable in terms of wedge shape and full face grooves, the Milled Grind wedge family has always been about classic and traditional wedge shapes, and this version – thanks to raised micro ribs on the face and an optimised thick-thin design – pushes backspin and the accuracy of centre of gravity placement for each individual loft to the absolute limit.

Here’s everything you need to know about the TaylorMade MG3 wedges…

What you need to know about TaylorMade Milled Grind MG3 wedges

New Raised Micro-Ribs

Maximising spin when you’re not taking a full swing is a very serious business when it comes to developing new wedges. The MG3’s have tiny raised Micro-Ribs (they’re just 0.02mm tall and 0.25mm wide) which sit in between each groove and protrude from the face.

The raised-ribs create a more textured abrasive surface which improves interaction between the clubface and ball, and they’re especially useful when you’re swinging at less than full tilt.

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Thick-Thin head design

When it comes to the short game, golfers want very different results from their lower- and higher-lofted wedges. Where a 52° wedge might be expected to flight shots lower and check the ball up after one hop, the demands on a 60° are often very different. With shots needing to be flopped over a bunker, the higher trajectory is often used in conjunction with a steeper landing angle to bring shots to a halt.

With this in mind, TaylorMade have taken a very progressive approach to the new MG3 wedges. A variable Thick-Thin head design optimizes the CG location and ball flight characteristics of each individual loft.

It means the higher lofts have longer hosels (there’s 10mm difference) and a thicker topline, plus there’s progressive toe heights, hosel offset and blade length, all to better enable you to hit the correct shot you’re after more often.  

Rusty Raw Face

Rusty un-plated wedges are nothing new in golf, in fact tons of tour pro’s have sworn by them for years. But asking golfers to stump up hard earned cash to buy a rusty wedge that looks like it’s years old has always been a massive challenge. But, by developing a process which allows just the face to rust (while the rest of the head looks new) TaylorMade have brought raw rusty wedges right to the centre stage.       

TaylorMade say the MD3’s Raw Face (which allows the face to rust over time) is particularly good in the wet, and when you understand that damp conditions can cause wedge spin to drop by half (from 10,000 RPM to 5,000 RPM in our tests) you soon realise any help is a very worthwhile investment.

By having no plating over the face, no groove edges are rounded over, so golfers benefit from extra geometry consistency and some say better feel, too. TaylorMade also reckon the MG3 have sharper, deeper and narrower grooves to further enhance greenside spin and wet weather performance.

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Milled sole geometry

To have someone standing in a factory grinding wedge soles all day long and get every single one exactly the same is a really big ask. Inevitably there’s always going to be some ‘hand-finished’ inconsistencies. TaylorMade’s answer is to CNC Mill every MG3 sole to ensure each one has the right sole grind shape and perfect levels of bounce.

Now into their 3^rd generation, the Milled Grind idea has obviously hit the spot with consumers and tour players alike.       

New loft

On tour it’s very common for players to use a pitching wedge that matches their iron set, not their wedges. But when you stop and think about it, pitching wedges need to be really versatile, and used from all sorts of situations, so why not have them matched to your wedges instead?

As a result, TaylorMade are introducing a brand new 46° loft in the MG3. We reckon it makes a brilliant pitching wedge replacement.

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Bill Price, Product Creation, Putter and Wedge at TaylorMade on the MG3 Milled Grind wedges

TaylorMade MG3 Milled Grind wedge specs:

READ NEXT: TaylorMade MG3 wedges full review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rob Jerram is the Digital Editor of todaysgolfer.co.uk
He has been a journalist for more than 20 years, starting his career with Johnston Press where he covered local and regional news and sport in a variety of roles across ten years.
Rob joined Bauer Media in 2010 and worked as the Senior Production Editor of Today’s Golfer and Golf World magazines for ten years before moving into the Digital Editor’s role in July 2020.
He is 39 years old and has been playing golf for almost three decades. He has been a member at Greetham Valley Golf Club in Rutland for eight years, playing off a handicap of 12.